Friday, November 7, 2008

A Sonnet

What Am I, Life?John Masefield (1878-1967)

What am I life? A thing of watery saltHeld in cohesion by unresting cells,Which work they know not why, which never halt,Myself unwitting where their Master dwells.I do not bid them, yet they toil, they spinA world which uses me as I use them;Nor do I know which end or which beginNor which to praise, which pamper, which condemn.So, like a marvel in a marvel set,I answer to the vast, as wave by wave,The sea of air goes over, dry or wet,Or the full moon comes swimming from her cave,Or the great sun comes forth: this myriad ITingles, not knowing how, yet wondering why.